On the Quadratic Equation
Monday February 26, 2018 at 16:00, SERC 110-A
High school students learn how to express the solution of a quadratic equation in one unknown in terms of its three coefficients. This lecture asks the why question, and it offers an emphatic answer, by discussing the nature of mathematics and its non-linear models.

Sixty-Four Curves of Degree Six
Tuesday February 27, 2018 at 16:00, Wachman 617
University of California, Berkeley
This lecture is an invitation to real algebraic geometry, along with computational aspects, ranging from bitangents and K3 surfaces to eigenvectors and ranks of tensors. We present an experimental study - with many pictures - of smooth curves of degree six in the real plane. The number 64 refers to rigid isotopy types in the Rokhlin-Nikulin classification.

The Geometry of Gaussoids
Wednesday February 28, 2018 at 12:00, Wachman 617
University of California, Berkeley
Gaussoids offer a new link between combinatorics, statistics and algebraic geometry. Introduced by Lnenicka and Matus in 2007, their axioms describe conditional independence for Gaussian random variables. We explain this theory and how it relates to matroids. The role of the Grassmannian for matroids is now played by a projection of the Lagrangian Grassmannian. We discuss the classification and realizability of gaussoids, and we explore oriented gaussoids, valuated gaussoids, and the analogue to positroids.